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probably 200ish. ebay seems to hover 225, 230 average
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Apr 9, 2015 03:31
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Jonny 290 posted:probably 200ish. ebay seems to hover 225, 230 average That sounds like the kind of thing I just might want to do. Let me know when you're ready to go. I'm not in a hurry.
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Apr 9, 2015 04:07
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Sounds good, i'll drop you a line 
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Apr 9, 2015 04:08
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Welp, playing around with an SDR dongle and somehow found some repeater traffic-net practice or something. After a days of sporadically listening to boring police radio this encounter was enough to reignite my interest in Ham. So I went down to the library today and grabbed the ARRL tech study guide, and found a place to take the test in June. I have to say that I'm less interested in VHF voice tomfoolery and more interested in data/APRS kind of applications, but right now everything seems completely beyond me tech wise so we will see how things go!
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Apr 14, 2015 00:45
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SpaceCadetBob posted:Welp, playing around with an SDR dongle and somehow found some repeater traffic-net practice or something. After a days of sporadically listening to boring police radio this encounter was enough to reignite my interest in Ham. So I went down to the library today and grabbed the ARRL tech study guide, and found a place to take the test in June. Hamstudy.org is your friend. Let me recommend taking the tech and general tests at the same time. If you study for general, you will pass both. And you only pay the test fee once! I'm pretty stupid and passed both my first try
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Apr 14, 2015 00:54
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That's fine, the coolest dudes in ham radio hang out on the only no-voice band anyways. Good luck and pelt us with questions if you like! Jonny's Ham Status: We're going to raise a couple hundred bucks, build some app_rpt machines with lovely 70cm radios, and start a radio network with a VOIP backbone. Still napkin-mathing things but it looks like we can get away with under a hundred bucks per node, including backup power! Shooting for a 3 node network to start. "why not just do irlp or echolink" because that poo poo already exists and it'd be too easy
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Apr 14, 2015 00:55
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SpaceCadetBob posted:I have to say that I'm less interested in VHF voice tomfoolery and more interested in data/APRS kind of applications Because that's the fun part for people who understand how computers work. Don't let this worry you in the least. And I agree with hamstudy.org and take the tech and general at the same time.
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Apr 14, 2015 01:33
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To be fair an app_rpt network already exists too.
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Apr 14, 2015 12:55
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Welp, apparently all it takes for me to develop a sudden interest in studying code is finding this for $15 on a local Facebook group. (edit: in "weird CW facts I calculated" news, at 20wpm, it would take 27 consecutive hours to transmit john galt's speech from atlas shrugged) SoundMonkey fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Apr 19, 2015 |
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Apr 19, 2015 05:04
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Anyone have any suggestions advice on choosing a mobile transceiver and antenna kit into my Nissan Pathfinder? I got licensed a few years back (Canadian Basic w/Honours) so have full access to the VHF/UHF and HF bands. I've done exactly zero with my license, aside from buying a handheld transceiver and then never getting around to programming the damned thing (IC-92AD), but have a road trip coming up and it's just the excuse I need to have something installed and get back into the hobby. Any suggestions? I like the cut of the ICOM kit (IC-7100 looks up my alley as an all-band transceivers) but am totally mystified as to all the antenna options available. The one requirement I do have is that the antennas are able to fold down and I would like to be able to do mobile HF for the backwoods camping trips I take, so I can drive into underground parking garages and such. I thought this HF antenna setup was particularly cool (http://www.cntlwire.com/accessories/stealth-antennas/9400.htm) but would need a second tri-band antenna for UHF/VHF operations. Suggestions welcome! Mandibular Fiasco fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Apr 19, 2015 |
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Apr 19, 2015 22:17
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I am in the middle of a road trip across half the country and I will say that V/U has been pointless except for APRS. I heard exactly one person on 146.520 who didn't come back to me. HF at least you can spin the knob and go, though the barrier for antenna and grounding is higher. I'd say IC706 in that regard. VHF is fine locally when you know where people are, but even with rFinder it is pointless since that doesn't help you know which repeaters to program and scan of the 999999 out there.
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Apr 20, 2015 09:03
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The repeater scene is so weird and goofy. Denver basically has four or five competing (warring) radio clubs that all have independent repeater networks on the same mountains. It's such a duplication of effort. and of course 90% of them stay idle, and even if you hear somebody throw their call out, they may not come back. Hence why I've renewed my simplex habits. 146.55 in Denver is home to a bunch of, well, I hate to say this, but they're prepper type folks. But they're all newer hams, so you dodge a bunch of the grumpy greybeardness. Even though we don't necessarily share the same opinions regarding concealed carry, I am more at home there than anywhere else. At least those dudes are messing around with copper J poles and DIY APRS interfaces; the old farts are just trading up to whatever $3000 Yaesu HF rig just came out and letting the drinking bird hitting their voice keyer go hog wild (if you haven't noticed, I hate contesting).
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Apr 20, 2015 16:54
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Contesting was cool on qso party day cause I got to use someone else's HF rig but after my second QSO it got tedious Real Quick. Then someone compared elephants warning people who cross their trails to 'black gangs' but he was old and drove a jag so yeah that's to be expected.
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Apr 20, 2015 17:04
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Our club is more WX/emergency minded and the other clubs 30-40 miles away try to get us to check in to their nets and vice versa. I hope we do another simplex net now that I've got a good antenna way up high.
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Apr 20, 2015 17:05
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I did the Rookie Round Up contest this weekend and had fun. It helped me get a feel on how far my signal can get out on different bands. Ended up with 136 contacts and had fun doing it. I can't imagine doing something like that for the 48 hours some of the bigger contests last for.
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Apr 20, 2015 17:45
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Finally got my antenna back up this weekend since moving into a new house. Fishing line can kiss my rear end. I used a fishing line, some weights, and a slingshot to get my support ropes up for my G5RV and lost quite a few weights somewhere up in the tree. Thankfully I finally managed to get a few shots that didn't get tangled up in just about ever branch and hoisted up the antenna. Works pretty well so far, managed a contact as far as Russia late Saturday night on JT-65. I've got to say I like the slow pace of the JT modes. Let's me kick back and watch something on Netflix while I keep an eye on radio every so often.
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Apr 20, 2015 17:51
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PuTTY riot posted:Our club is more WX/emergency minded and the other clubs 30-40 miles away try to get us to check in to their nets and vice versa. I hope we do another simplex net now that I've got a good antenna way up high. Do they do group-buys of amber dash lights?
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Apr 20, 2015 22:24
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fordan posted:Do they do group-buys of amber dash lights? We actually don't really have any whackers, somehow. It's mainly 'country folk', students, and professors. Other than that one comment I mentioned, no political anything. We get a tornado warning a couple times a year so IMO it's not really that tinfoily to say 'hey we should do a simplex net once every few months so we are used to it in case our repeaters (2-3 or so) go down in a real emergency'.
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Apr 20, 2015 22:46
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Simplex net's good bait for radio banter, as you all know we have a federal requirement that 30% or more of amateur communications must be signal reports and mentioning that you're on a new radio. Simplex is great for that because the repeater doesn't equalize everybody, and you can check out everybody's signal.
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Apr 20, 2015 23:16
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Jonny 290 posted:Simplex net's good bait for radio banter, as you all know we have a federal requirement that 30% or more of amateur communications must be signal reports and mentioning that you're on a new radio. Simplex is great for that because the repeater doesn't equalize everybody, and you can check out everybody's signal. I caught a couple of rednecks talking about antennas on simplex the other day. lol. fine business. i got me a end fed wire and its real good but you gotta watch out or the arr ayuff will run up on back up the coax i tell you what. fine business.
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Apr 20, 2015 23:24
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PuTTY riot posted:fine business Elderly ham detected.
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Apr 21, 2015 01:54
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GEEEE FAHV ARRR VEEEEEE
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Apr 21, 2015 02:02
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I see we've got a new thread title. fine business.
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Apr 21, 2015 09:34
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PuTTY riot posted:I see we've got a new thread title. fine business. indeed
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Apr 21, 2015 09:55
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Jonny 290 posted:Haha, it's me, I'm the guy flicking a Bic over by the radio desk cause I just want to hit Scan. Guilty as hell of that last night. Put a new CR2032 in last night, holds memory now. I'm going to hold off on hacking up because I think I'm going to flip it and my 208H to buy a crossband Icom, most likely a 2820H. Let me know what you're thinkin', whenever you're ready, and thanks!
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Apr 22, 2015 01:18
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Cool, I am waiting on the parts to replace a couple janky caps on the 271, those will be fixed this weekend. Also I found out that it has an aftermarket memory board with a real EPROM, which means that the most common problem with the *71 radios (some of the code is in battery backed RAM and when that dies your radio bricks) is bypassed; this radio will never brainfart. And the extra cable to make it have 1024 memories is there, uncut, pristine. board's $100 by itself. Depending on how some other CL sales go (anybody wanna buy a tow bar and brake controller? lol) I may be ready to move fairly soon actually. I wanna get new radios well before field day
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Apr 22, 2015 03:30
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Is the the place to talk about SDR? I wanted to have a play without breaking the bank, do these look like decent receivers? I live in the UK and would rather not wait a month to get one from China for £2 off.
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Apr 22, 2015 06:57
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Crack posted:Is the the place to talk about SDR? I wanted to have a play without breaking the bank, do these look like decent receivers? I live in the UK and would rather not wait a month to get one from China for £2 off. They're not *decent* but when they were about £15 each I snapped two up, because they're very cheap.
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Apr 22, 2015 11:14
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See if you can find the newer version of the chip. R820t2 I believe it is. It's not a big deal but supposedly they're better
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Apr 22, 2015 15:08
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I just placed an order for an SDRPlay, which is based in the UK. 125GBP. The dongles don't get into the ham bands without an upconverter; I figured that once I was done screwing around with two boards, extra cabling, etc, the SDRplay looked a lot better. Also has a 12-bit ADC instead of the 8-bitter so the SNR should be markedly better overall. I've got an R820T dongle, sounds like rear end in the FM band but it was a gateway drug.
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Apr 22, 2015 16:57
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Dielectric posted:I just placed an order for an SDRPlay, which is based in the UK. 125GBP. Please report on the SDRplay. i'm so close to clicking Order but you know, it's a bit of an outlay. can't just write it off like "oh $12 SDR stick hahah"
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Apr 22, 2015 17:08
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My partner's physics class and others from our city did their launches for the Global Space Balloon Challenge yesterday, and it was amazing fun helping her class out. The students did everything - designing the payload structure, setting up the GPS, radios and other electronics, up to and including launching the balloon. We all had a blast working together to chase them down and find them, with the spread being about 70km for landing area. Most of them landed in farmer's fields, but one of them required some bush-bashing and miraculously landed in the one clearing in a forest. Most of the students were relying on APRS.fi, and while her school's balloon was showing up loud and clear, the other schools weren't able to see theirs from what we're thinking was lower power (I got brand-spanking-new batteries from the hardware store ten minutes before launch when their voltage readings were looking all funky). One of the schools had done multiple balloon launches in the past, and were all decked out with proper radio equipment and licensing for the whole endeavour. They were a big help with teaching students from other school using their past experience, as well as with tracking stuff after is disappeared from APRS. On top of their improved ability to locate things, the communications issues we were having with mobile phones in an incredibly rural area was really obvious to the students who are used to always having a data plan nearby; a bunch of them want to get their amateur radio licenses as a result, which is really awesome. At the end of the day, I think four out of five payloads were recovered without any complications, and only one is unaccounted for. The one that landed in a forest appeared out of nowhere when I think someone in the area turned on their receiver and it appeared on APRS again. That class is going to be sending that dude a thank you card, since they were about to give up before it appeared and we trucked it out there.
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Apr 26, 2015 04:23
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Speaking of things in the air...... big news today http://www.amsat.org/?p=4058 quote:AMSAT is excited to announce that we have accepted an opportunity to participate in a potential rideshare as a hosted payload on a geostationary satellite planned for launch in 2017. An amateur radio payload, operating in the Amateur Satellite Service, will fly on a spacecraft which Millennium Space Systems (MSS) of El Segundo, CA is contracted to design, launch, and operate for the US government based on their Aquila M8 Series Satellite Structure. this is absolutely so so so enormous. they were already planning to get a europe-asia-africa geostationary satellite up, but it sounds like this will be covering the western hemisphere. Go start buying microwave gear and books if you want a head start. And pick up a Primestar or similar offset dish, bigger the better.
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Apr 26, 2015 05:33
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Jonny 290 posted:Go start buying microwave gear and books if you want a head start. And pick up a Primestar or similar offset dish, bigger the better. This is the part where you tell me China will sell me a rig for $60 and I can use the previous tenant's DirecTV dish... right? ...right? 
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Apr 26, 2015 08:54
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Jonny 290 posted:Speaking of things in the air...... will this american one cover western europe as well? i like the idea of being rude to people via satellite in other countries.
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Apr 26, 2015 13:05
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How would you go about talking on something like the Qatarsat anyway? If I'm reading the satellite coverage calculator it looks like 26 degrees East should be workable from here. For a Ku band downlink and a 2.4 GHz uplink I guess use a normal LNB to get to ~1 GHz then downconvert/receive by SDR, and then use a 2.4 GHz transmitter, 1-10W wifi amplifier and a feed-horn/antenna next to the Ku band LNB? If that's enough then I might be able to talk on the cheap since the bladeRF already works as a transceiver in that frequency range, but for running SSB I suspect the LNB would have to at least be modified to run off a very precise time base to avoid an unusable amount of frequency drift. Linearity would probably also be an issue for the LNB.
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Apr 26, 2015 15:25
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Jonny 290 posted:Please report on the SDRplay. i'm so close to clicking Order but you know, it's a bit of an outlay. can't just write it off like "oh $12 SDR stick hahah" The wait continues... This is just a short note to update you on the progress of your order. Unfortunately our plastics supplier has been unable to meet the promised delivery date and so our shipments have been delayed. Shipments will commence next week. We currently have a large backlog of orders for the product, but we expect to have cleared this completely by May 11th at the latest. You will be informed as soon as your unit has shipped. We would like to thank you for your patience.
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Apr 28, 2015 19:57
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Dielectric posted:The wait continues... "We hosed up the injection molding and it cost like loving infinity dollars to get them to retool."
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Apr 29, 2015 09:46
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ok, so i've had a victory shot and now want to freak out -- 2.4 ghz is easy enough to deal with i'm not worried with that. but 10? gently caress. There's this trailer that one of the local ham clubs has. it is 30 feet long, custom interior, custom wiring closet and is probably worth 100k on its own with another 50k of tech and radios in it. It is beautiful. It is trotted out to all the shows. the tires are still new, there is no wear on the body. it's never actually been used for emergency purposes. i hope the ground stations for this thing aren't like that trailer. how the gently caress am i as an old-solder-balls hobbyist supposed to manage to build a ground station? you have to homebrew. with weird poo poo that works on magic like gunn diodes or whatever. and if you want anything calibrated or tuned at all, which you should if you want it to actually work, the test equipment universally has names like HP and Agilent. there's no MFJ-259 that covers 10,368 mhz. you gently caress up a waveguide coupling stub by 0.1 mm and your poo poo doesnt work or worse burns up. five digits in test gear to build a very admittedly cool radio. dont even get me started on if they pick 24 for one leg of the link. christ -- ok, i'm done freaking out now
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Apr 30, 2015 00:46
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This is going to be so awesome that you KNOW it will work out. Someone will get very clever about homebrew techniques and we'll all know or someone else will crank out the right gear (test or otherwise) from China. Or likely both. I'm legitimately excited about this, and I can't say that's happened in regards to amateur radio in a long time.
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Apr 30, 2015 01:20
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